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McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest and most successful chain of hamburger fast-food restaurants, serving more than 47 million customers around the world daily. Its menu includes hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken products, French fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, shakes, and desserts. In response to criticism and changing consumer tastes, the company has expanded its menu to include salads, wraps and fruit. McDonald's restaurants have been found in 119 countries; it operates over 31,000 restaurants worldwide, employing more than 1.5 million people. History The business began in 1940, with a restaurant opened by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California. Their introduction of the "Speedee Service System" in 1948 furthered the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant that the White Castle hamburger chain had already put into practice more than two decades earlier. The original mascot of McDonald's was a man with a chef's hat on top of a hamburger shaped head whose name was "Speedee." Speedee was eventually replaced with Ronald McDonald by 1967 when the company first filed a US trademark on a clown shaped man having puffed out costume legs. McDonald's first filed for a U.S. trademark on the name McDonald's on May 4, 1961, with the description "Drive-In Restaurant Services," which continues to be renewed through the end of December 2009. In the same year, on September 13, 1961, the company filed a logo trademark on an overlapping, double arched "M" symbol. The overlapping double arched "M" symbol logo was temporarily disfavored by September 6, 1962, when a trademark was filed for a single arch, shaped over many of the early McDonald's restaurants in the early years. The famous double arched "M" symbol in use today did not appear until November 18, 1968, when the company filed a U.S. trademark. Timeline 1948: Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino, California. 1954: Ray Kroc gains the rights to set up McDonald's restaurants in most of the country. 1955: Kroc opens his first McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois; he incorporates his company as McDonald's Corporation. 1960: The slogan, "Look for the Golden Arches," is used in an advertising campaign. 1961: Kroc buys out the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million. 1963: Ronald McDonald makes his debut. 1965: McDonald's goes public. 1967: The company opens its first foreign restaurant in British Columbia, Canada. 1968: The Big Mac is added to the menu. 1973: Breakfast items begin to appear on the menu, with the debut of the Egg McMuffin. 1974: The first Ronald McDonald House opens in Philadelphia. 1975: The first McDonald's drive-thru window appears. 1979: The children's Happy Meal makes its debut. 1983: Chicken McNuggets are introduced. 1985: McDonald's becomes one of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average. 1998: The company takes its first stake in another fast-food chain, buying a minority interest in Colorado-based Chipotle Mexican Grill. 1999: Donatos Pizza Inc. is acquired. 2000: McDonald's buys the bankrupt Boston Market chain. 2002: Restructuring charges of $853 million result in the firm's first quarterly loss since going public. 2003: McDonald's sells Donatos in order to refocus on its core hamburger business. See also * Burger King *Subway *Yum! Brands Category:Fast Food Restaurants Category:Restaurants Category:Hamburger Restaurants Category:Restaurants by type Category:Breakfast Restaurants Category:Food court restaurants